Adventure Time Card Wars is a 2-player duel to the death in the land of Ooo – recreating the Card Wars game that Jake played with Finn in the fourth season, episode 14 of Adventure Time titled… wait for it… “Card Wars!”Here’s a clip from the episode >

Bring creatures into play onto specific Landscape tiles. Fight every turn with your opponent’s creatures. Make it through their magical ranks of creatures and score 25 hits against your opponent to win. The loser is a dweeb, and the winner is a cool guy…

Okay. I hate to admit this, but the moment I saw that Card Wars existed in print several weeks ago, I’ve been itching to try it. I’m kind of an Adventure Time nut.

This review has forced my hand. I will hunt down both Collector’s Boxes very soon and put them to the test.

Gotta agree with @Craig, though. I loathe CCG’s and boosters, and can only hope that this game plays well without dropping bags of money in Cryptozoic’s wallet. I can’t see myself playing this more than a few times just for the Adventure Time experience.

I understand your concerns over this becoming a CCG / booster pack driven game. All I can say is that at a recent trade show (GAMA) Matt Hyra and Kay Metzen from Cryptozoic stated that:

“…while the booster is collectible, Cryptozoic is not treating this like traditional CCGs, but more like their trading card sets. “The set is just over 100 cards, so it’s not a giant set,” he said. “We have a rarity set up, where you have a box of packs (24 boosters in a box) and there are 24 rares, so if everything goes according to plan, you’re going to get a whole set in a box. It’s not a guarantee, there could be a hiccup, but you should. You’re not chasing cards. A set in a box, is the whole plan.”

“This booster is a content build,” Kat Metzen marketing director said. “Everyone kept asking, ‘Is this a CCG?’ And we’re not treating it like that. You’re not going to see a lot of booster pack releases coming out, and everyone trying to chase the cards. This is a content build–think like a Munchkin expansion pack, where it adds to the game that already exists, where this is the core of the game. We’re not trying to have an ongoing foil pack support program.”

I take this as Cryptozoic’s adding content to what they initially thought would be a game that sold a little better than average. It looks like the demand is huge. They wanted to add content without having to go through the development process of assembling more pre-made decks,( the only current configuration) which would be more expensive and take longer to develop. Or a whole new configuration. They wanted to add more content as quickly as possible. Booster packs were the way to go. They already make trading card sets and in terms of production – it would much easier to send images to a printer and have them pop out a set rather than trying to create a whole new box and price point.

So although the game plays like a CCG, and you can deck build like a CCG, the addition of these “boosters” don’t necessarily herald multiple releases in a launch cycle and some of the negative aspects of CCGs ( like powerful cards that no one can get, a high level of blind purchase and an intense level of competition that is exclusive rather than inclusive). With only 100 card in the new packs, there will be lower collectible, and less “chasing cards.”

We will see where this goes but for now, it seems they are just making the content deeper for fans of the game. Again if it seems appealing try the starter sets and if you want to dive deeper it will be there for you.

My mind just whispered to another area of my mind ‘This.Must.Be.MINE!’

But I don’t know…it still has a whiff of CCG. LCG decks I can deal with. Munchkin foils – easy peasy.

But if it is only a 100 card set why not just sell it LCG style (aside from the simple answer of revenue generation, of course )

Smaller booster sets aren’t so much ‘skirting’ the issue as ‘skorting’ it.

1)Buy a box of boosters (a more expensive buy-in than just splitting it into two LCG decks) and you MIGHT get everything you need and not have to chase down cards
2)But the minute you buy one or two little booster packs at the FLGS, you begin ‘card chasing’ because you didn’t buy a complete Box o Boosters so…
3)Back to step 1

My son loves Adventure Time and had to have this game. Being the youngest by far he has trouble getting his older siblings to play some of his games. Luckily he has gamer parents and his mom is a sucker. (that’s me) We played this game twice and I liked it, it’s a bit like Magic The Gathering in how it’s played. My son Loves it and immediately bought the next set of cards.

I think it’s a great game for kids around 11 and engaging enough for adults to play without feeling put out for having to play a kid’s game.